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Marino not feeling well for Week 7
Posted: Sunday October 24, 1999 01:47 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King chatted with CNN/SI's Bob Lorenz on CNN's NFL Preview before Week 7 of the NFL season kicked off: Bob Lorenz: This week against Philadelphia, Damon Huard subs for an injured Dan Marino -- how is Marino feeling? Peter King: Marino's not feeling well at all, Bob, and that's really got the Dolphins concerned. In fact, Marino will get a second opinion on the bone spur on his neck and the trapezius muscle that's hurting him right now. He'll get that second opinion this week. The Dolphins, frankly, are concerned that Marino will not only miss this game but could miss a couple more weeks as well. It's interesting to me the way Marino has handled this: a lot of times in the past he's been perceived as kind of a cold fish, a guy who really doesn't care about his backups or anything like that. But I was up in New England last Sunday and saw Marino being really good with Damon Huard, really legitimately happy for him. I was interviewing Huard at one point and Marino was talking to him very amiably. You could tell that Marino was happy for him. I think it's good for the Dolphins that they stuck with Damon Huard and have given him a chance, and that he's coming through, but there's some legitimate concern in the organization about the near future of Dan Marino. BL: Brett Favre termed this week as a real character test for the Packers, given what happened last week at Denver. The fact that he only completed seven passes and threw three interceptions is astounding. PK: The problem right now with the Green Bay offense is that they can't find anything to hold on to. I talked to offensive coordinator Sherm Lewis this week and he said, "Listen, I've been in this league 17 years and I've never been a part of as bad of an offensive performance as we just had." I think the key thing now with the Packers is that they have to develop some chemistry on the offensive line. They've got tackle Earl Dotson, their best lineman, hurting now; they don't know if he's going to last. They've got two other new linemen. They can't rely on that line to keep Brett Favre free of traffic in the middle and that's really hurting them. BL: The Vikings have made a quarterback change from Randall Cunningham to Jeff George, and the 49ers are going with one as well. Should we start getting used to not seeing Steve Young? PK: No question about it. In fact, Young this past week saw three specialists in the state of Utah and he couldn't get clearance from any one of them to continue his football career. Now, the 49ers had been talking about possibly putting Young on injured reserve this coming week. They will not do that because they don't want to force Young into saying "I'm out for the year" -- they'd like to have Young come to the conclusion that he needs to step away from the game. They need him to do that himself. The one other guy in the 49ers locker room who is unsure whether he's going to play much longer is Jerry Rice. In fact, a couple of weeks ago before their game at St. Louis, Rice and Young were openly talking about retiring together. Rice doesn't have plans to do this immediately but he said this week if he's not healthy by the end of the year, there's a good chance he, too, will step away. BL: Mike Ditka turned 60 this week. How much longer do you think he wants to coach? PK: Ditka told me recently he'd like to coach at least the three years that remain on his contract, through 2002. He even said to me, "George Halas coached until he was 73 years old. Who knows? I love coaching, I love this city." The one thing about Ditka is if the volcanic stuff you see from him occasionally happens even one more time, the Saints are going to have to rethink whether he's their guy long-term. One other thing: Ditka was 6-10 two years ago, he was 6-10 last year; he wants Ricky Williams, he gets him; he says if they're lucky, they'll be 6-10 this year. How much longer is owner Tom Benson going to stand for this abject mediocrity when he's brought his coaching savior in? That's the big question. BL: The unbeaten Rams play the Titans next week. Who will be starting at quarterback in that game for Tennessee? PK: I spoke to Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher on Saturday and he's got a tough decision ahead of him. He's got Neil O'Donnell, who's gone 4-1 during Steve McNair's absence. McNair had back surgery five weeks ago. If McNair gets the okay to play from the team doctor Monday, he will begin practicing. Fisher told me he was optimistic that would happen, but then he has to see McNair go 100 percent in practice Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. If he does, McNair starts against the Rams. BL: Tim Couch was the top quarterback taken in the draft last year, Peyton Manning the year before that. What about next year's draft -- who do you expect will be the top quarterback taken? PK: In the last couple of weeks Purdue's Drew Brees has definitely distanced himself from the quarterback pack, particularly overtaking Louisville's Chris Redman -- those two were sort of an item before the year. Look for Brees to come out, he's a junior eligible guy this year,. Also, look for Cleveland to be very interested in Florida State's Peter Warrick, despite his off-field problems. Otherwise, the top couple of picks could include two Penn State guys, LaVar Arrington and Courtney Brown, both of whom had touchdowns in their big win over Purdue Saturday. BL: The trade deadline came and went this week. A lot of people thought thatBarry Sanders' name would be mentioned. It wasn't -- what's the latest there? PK: Sanders' agent David Ware told me this week that he feels as if the Lions are being vindictive towards Sanders in not trading him this past Tuesday. And he doesn't think they're going to trade him at all. Personally I think that on draft day next April the Lions are basically going to say, "We're not getting anything out of Barry Sanders. Let's trade him for a No. 1 and 2, or two No. 1s, maybe to Washington." I think that Barry will play football in 2000, only definitely not for the Lions. BL: Finally, there's some controversy in Washington involving punter Matt Turk. What's going on there? PK: Matt Turk reported to work on Wednesday with a broken finger. He said he suffered the broken finger Sunday night in their game against Arizona. The Redskins said, "How could you have a broken finger. We looked over the film. There's nothing wrong here." The team suspects that he broke his finger in a pickup basketball game when he got back to Washington. I think if the Redskins find out that Turk lied to them about the circumstances surrounding the injury, they could cut him and go looking for another punter. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's NFL Preview.
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